The Near Side: This Week in Horses — May 1, 2015

Happy Friday, everyone. Here’s what you can talk about with your barn buddies this weekend.

• The Kentucky Derby. I don’t really follow racing, so my Derby pick is always the one with the weirdest name. None of the names in this year’s field were speaking to me, but then I read this article about the source of each contender’s name. Since I am also a fan of sports that no one pays attention to except during the Olympics, “Keen Ice,” whose name comes from a curling term, is now my pick. You also can’t go wrong with American Pharoah (sic) according to The Tonight Show’s Puppy Predictor.
• And then, there’s this story highlighting a darker side of the Thoroughbred industry, but with something of a positive twist. Pure Thoughts Foal Rescue in Florida takes on the foals of nursemares, byproducts of some of the racing world’s breeding programs. Want to hear the pitter patter of little hooves without adding to the problem of overbreeding? These foals are up for adoption.
• The PAST Act, intended to increase protection for show horses—especially Tennessee Walking Horses—has been reintroduced in the senate. Now’s the time to call your congresspeople.
• Someone tagged a LAPD police horse, and there’s not much else I can add to that, except the headline calling this person a “graffiti artist” seems a little generous.
• Where do you ride your horse? If public trails are part of your world, pay attention. Hundreds of miles of trails in Virginia may be closed to horses. Once we lose ‘em, we don’t often get ‘em back.
• The AQHA passed a rule change this week banning the use of lip chains in the halter ring, effective next year. HorseNation’s Kristen Kovatch has a good roundup of the issue.
• And finally, make sure you catch up on all of our Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event coverage from last weekend, and if you’re in the U.S., tune in to NBC on Sunday, May 3 at 12:30 p.m. to watch the highlights!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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Leslie Potter is Sr. Associate Web Editor of horseillustrated.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LeslieInLex.